We have talked a lot about advertising on social networks such as Facebook and Instagram and its easy access for any business due to its affordable cost. You can advertise for € 1 a day.
Today, we will learn about another advertising platform, this time that of the social music network Spotify, which opens its advertising platform for the first time so that anyone can use it. And no, you don’t need to be a great brand.
Have you ever thought about advertising with audio format? Maybe a radio spot? If you have investigated a little, you will have seen that this option is not exactly cheap, and it is like trying to kill birds with gunshots: you cannot select who will listen to the ad.
However, with Spotify, these problems are solved because:
- You can advertise with small budgets.
- You can segment the audience you want to be shown to.
Although it is still not as affordable as advertising on Facebook and Instagram, it still seems that many entrepreneurs will access it without a problem.
Also, can you imagine playing on Spotify?
Some cool facts about digital audio
Let’s see some information that Spotify Advertising offers us:
- In 2020, digital audio will surpass radio listening (59.8% versus 40.2%).
- 91% of Generation Z users listen to streaming digital audio, and 78% of Millennials.
- Spotify accounts for 33% of digital listening.
But let’s go beyond statistics and think about other more qualitative data:
- Audio allows us to reach users without looking at their computer or mobile screen.
- Audio is everywhere; we listen to Spotify while exercising, cooking, working, relaxing, playing games or spending time with family and friends. It accompanies us in our day today.
- Seen like this, it seems that advertising on Spotify deserves at least that we know it.
Features of advertising on Spotify
Spotify’s Ad Studio features four key elements:
Speed, flexibility and control:
The ad setup is quick, you can run a campaign for just € 250, and you can manage targeting, creativity and budget throughout the entire movement.
Advanced segmentation options:
Based on what and how users listen, the platform helps to connect with the audience at every moment of the day:
- Age, sex and location.
- Interests: based on user listening habits.
- The context in real-time: to impact at a particular time of the day (the ad appears when you exercise, for an energy drink, for example).
- Based on fans: Based on the fans of the artist himself or another artist.
Free Audio Ads Creation:
You can choose between creating and uploading your audio spot or having Spotify take care of it. If you pick this second option, totally free, the steps will be as follows:
- Write the script
- Spotify records it
- You check it
- We will see this process in detail later
Real-time reports:
Audience metrics include age, gender, music genre, and listening platform.
Types of ads on Spotify
Although we are focusing a lot on audio because of the type of platform we are talking about, this is not the only format that allows:
Audio Ads
- They are 30 seconds long.
- They are only played with the sound active and cannot be skipped.
- They include a banner with an image and CTA.
Video ads
- It never jumps when the screen is minimized or locked. Requires Spotify to be in the foreground.
- 30-second ads.
- They can be in horizontal or vertical format.
- The brand occupies the entire screen.
- They are only played with the sound active and cannot be skipped.
- Includes complimentary banner.
- Ads will always play in pauses between songs; they will never cut off a listen.
How to create an ad on Spotify?
Now that we have seen some information about digital audio and reviewed the characteristics of advertising on Spotify, it is time to see what the platform looks like from the inside and how to create an ad step by step.
The first thing we will have to do is register on the Ad Studio platform. For this, you will need to be registered as a user on Spotify. If you are not, this is the time to create an account.
Once the details of your company Spotify have been filled in, you will have to verify them. So you have to wait a few days until you receive the confirmation by email.
If you are an agency, you can assign different permissions to share data with team members or with your clients. Choose between:
- Administrator: has all the permissions to view, edit and configure both advertisements and the account and payment method.
- Contributor: can create, view, edit and export campaigns.
- Spectator: have read-only access, can view and export campaigns, but cannot create, edit, or configure.
When creating our ad on Spotify, we will have four sections: configure, budget and segmentation, creative material and review. Let’s see what we can do in each of them.
Set up
In this first section, we will select our objective and name the ad.
We can choose between setting up a music-related ad (promoting an artist, a concert or artist merchandising) or a non-music-related ad (a brand, product or organization).
In this example, we will see the option to promote something not related to music: the winter collection of a clothing brand.
Budget and segmentation
In the budget and segmentation section, we will be able to choose:
- The format: (audio or video) and the platform on which it will have listened: Mobile devices (IOS and Android), computer or both.
- The start and end dates of the campaign and the hours.
- The budget.
- Location: by country, autonomous community, city, postal code or group of postal codes.
- The age range and gender.
- Additional targeting: by interests, real-time contexts, musical genres, or without different targeting.
- As we modify the different sections, we can see estimated metrics in the right column.
Creative stuff
The first thing we will have to see is if we need help to create our material or have it already made.
Let’s continue with the example, imagining that we need help to create it.
In this case, when selecting the corresponding option, we will have to fill in some information so that Spotify can create our ad:
- Backing Track: Select from the music track library or upload your own to play in the background of your ad.
- Voiceover script: Write your script for the announcer to read (you can also see some samples if you need inspiration), select the language in which you want it to be recorded and the voice profile (male or female, adolescent, young, adult or elderly). This is the time to instruct the speaker about tone, where to gush, how you want something to be pronounced, etc.
- Image for the banner and button call to action.
- Destination URL when clicking on the ad.
- The advertiser’s name: it is important that it exactly matches the advertiser’s name since if an error is detected, the ad will be rejected.
- A slogan that puts listeners in context about your company.
When we have completed everything, and before confirming our ad, we can see a preview in the right column:
If everything is correct, we give the next.
Check
- The last step will be to send our ad to review and create the audio if necessary.
- Here, we will check that the payment method is correct and click on order.
- In 24 hours, we will receive a response from Spotify by email.
- See what the result of the ad that we have configured in this example would be like:
- Images and video from love Audio Spotify.
Conclusion
Spotify Ad Studio offers us the opportunity to advertise audio and reach new users, and it opens up a new range of possibilities beyond social networks.
In addition, it allows us to impact your audience even if they do not have a mobile in their hands while they carry out other activities such as cooking, walking, playing sports or playing. And even decide in which of these activities we are interested in appearing. And this seems to us something compelling that is worth exploring.
As in everything, it is a matter of testing to see how it works for us in our case. But we believe that it is an advertising platform to take into account.
What do you think of this tool to make Spotify’s ads available to us?